Sega Officially Announces Sonic The Hedgehog 4

Yes, that’s right folks. Sega has officially announced that the mysterious ‘Project Needlemouse’ will, in-fact, make its grand appearance this Summer on the PSN in the form of Sonic The Hedgehog 4.

The thing is, this will only be episode 1, which looks like this game is going to come in installments over time on the PSN. There hasn’t been any more revealed other than the fact that it will be a 2D, side scrolling game with a 3D makeover. Sonic fans will be pleased to hear that their blue pal is finally getting the long awaited sequel he deserves. Sega has released the first trailer for the title which you can check out below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJn9rJjSOR4[/youtube]

This does look promising, although it’s quite unfortunate that the developers decided to use the sprites from Sonic Rush on the PSP, which made Sonic look like he was barely trying to run at all. Who knows, since we still have several months before the game’s release, maybe we’ll see some graphical changes here and there. Although I must say, even having just seen a small clip, the environment looks absolutely gorgeous, which really makes the wait that much harder!

Either way, based on this trailer, Sonic 4 is looking like a breath of fresh air. In an interview with GameSpot, Sega associate brand manager Ken Balough stated that Sonic 4 will feature classic Sonic style music with a modern twist. Sonic’s abilities will remain very much the same, with the addition of his typical homing attack, although we don’t yet know if this is the homing attack from the Sonic 3 era (which required a shield) or the new-age homing attack which can be done anywhere at anytime.

No price has been set just yet, but Sega will be revealing more details over next few weeks, so we’ll be sure to keep you all posted. In the meantime, why not let us know what your favorite Sonic title was, down in the comments? Heck, toss in some of your favorite Sonic moments while you’re at it!